Sapporo's Space Beer: Perfect After A Long Day Of SETI Crunching

So here's a riveting question: what kind of chilled beverage do you
reach for when you've just been canned by your employer for using company PCs to allegedly look for life in other universes? Space beer,
of course! A Japanese brewing company has just introduced what is
likely to be the wildest beer since the introduction of Kid Rock's Bad
Ass Beer, with Sapporo Breweries planning a limited rollout of "Space
Barley."

You'll be relieved to know that the prank is actually going for a good
cause. Rather than using this sudden fascination with the prospect of
space exploration as a means to make even more from gullible beer
drinkers, the company is planning to send all of the proceeds to an
"educational science charity for Japanese children."

It's sort of unclear what exactly the point of this brew is. The press release mentions that it was "brewed as part of the joint research with Okayama
University conducted to exploit possibilities of barleycorn for beer in
space," and that "100%
of the seedlings of barleycorn that traveled the space." You see,
actual particles were brought back from the International Space Station
to be used in this beer, which basically gives you a taste of space
without having to apply for a job with NASA. The only catch is that
there's obviously a limited amount of space dust available to go into
alcohol, so the company will be starting a lottery to give 250 lucky
winners the chance to consume a six-pack for around $115 each. Not bad
when you consider how much a single trip into space would cost you.